A conversation with Saskia Sassen

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Vibok Works recently featured a fragment of the conversation between Saskia Sassen and Paula Álvarez, included in the chapter ‘The Wishes’ of the book Collective Architectures published by Vibok Works in 2010. The conversation falls into the subject headings, “Contingency”, “Micro-Social Struggles”, “Polarity”, “Infrastructure” and “Planifcation/Freedom”. After a hefty discussion on these different subjects, Sassen ends the conversation by saying,

“…a city is a complex system made up of many different ecologies —the infrastructure promoted by Cirugeda is also an ecology— and thus the totality is charged with dynamism and tensions. In other words, it’s a living organism that can’t be completely controlled or centrally planned. Furthermore, the challenges this infrastructure faces will always change. Therefore, it’s crucial that it have the capacity to respond, and on a more complex level, the capacity to change assemblage, or the organisational logic which makes your “city” run, because deep down it’s your city. This is something that will vary from city to city and from era to era…”

View the whole article here.